I love guys who pitch so the infielders can help. I don’t know how many people keep up with the GO/AO (Ground out/Air out) stat, but it has been beneficial to me when I’m in a coin toss scenario for spot starts. The list has a smattering of fantasy studs, but has some shockers, as well. This free piece of advice is brought to you by the letter G, the number 8 and pinwheels. So back on point, week 5 has a dual purpose. Obviously to show you who pitches twice and their effectiveness with keeping it on the floor. So here’s the two start pitchers for this week in fantasy baseball:

Mike Leake (NYM vs. Perez) (Cubs vs. Gorzellany)
Kid’s got appeal. Gets 2 home starts. The only caveats are that he walks too many and the Mets are hitting their stride right now. Keeps ball in the infield to a tune of 2.92 GO/AO. A must grab in most formats for this week or any week moving forward as a back end of the rotation guy.

Jaime Garcia (@ Phil vs. Hamels) (@ Pitt vs. Karstens)
Gets a tough first start in a hitter’s park, but if you look closer he is the clubhouse leader in GO/AO with 4.45. Anyone who pitches against Pittsburgh has to be a favorite. Number one pick up this week; run faster than you did to go get Leake

Livan Hernandez (Atl vs. Kawakami) (@Fla vs. Sanchez)
Another great 2 start option this week. 3 ER in last 31 innings; yeah, that’s getting it done. May K less than 2 per game as he pitches to contact at a 1.25 GO/AO rate. I don’t care how old he is or if throws 50 mph… He is pitching effectively, plain and simple.

Kevin Correia (Col vs. Jimenez) (Hou vs. Oswalt)
This is what you get as the ace of a bad pitching staff: you match up against two studs. Still has Petco watching his back though. If you’re sleepin’ on him, your team is prolly vacated. GO/AO is 2.6 and vs. two great SPs he needs to be efficient.

Luke Hochevar (@CHW vs. Floyd) (@ Tex vs. Feldman)
Starting to get some juice in mixed leagues, though still plays in Siberia. Two road starts is a downer. A stellar 1.8 GO/AO rate is nice, having a shaky infield is not so good. Late flyer good for 7-9 K’s for the week.

Carl Pavano (Det vs. Willis) (Bal vs. Matusz)
Gets some home cooking against some free swinging teams. GO/AO is 1.15 which is eh, but not horrendous. Maybe on the best team in the central right now. Doesn’t walk anyone, so low WHIP is a good bet. My 2 win pick of the week.

Paul Maholm (Chc Vs Dempster) ( StL vs. Wainwright)
Nightmare on Clemente Street. Could pitch well enough to keep his team in it for 5 innings, not consecutively though. GP/AO 1.4 is well above average. Not liking the matchups, but there are way worse options.

Anibal Sanchez (SF vs. Wellemeyer) (@ Was vs. Hernandez)
Gets pretty good matchups considering. Gives up way too many hits for my liking. GO/AO is sitting at 1.15. Is going to alternate good/bad starts and I think he’s somewhere in between this week. Pitches well enough to win.

Joe Blanton ( StL vs. Wainwright) (Atl vs. Kawakami)
If he can stay healthy, he may be the one overlooked guy this week. I shy away from anyone’s first start back from the DL. Career GO/AO is 1.08, and 2 games at home (albeit in the homer dome east). Though that offense behind him is comforting.

Hochevar does have the benefit of having Getz back at 2nd base this week. The major downfall for him is if he gets shelled (like against Tampa this past week), Hillman will probably leave him in to continue getting shelled. The Royals have no faith in their bullpen and rightfully so.

@TheEvilEmpire: I’m starting Fister in my other (non-shallow league). I believe Grey’s advice was to go with Fister at home for the time being.

I would like to start both, but given the innings cap (and my need to compete for saves, I should really be starting 6 SP and 3 RP. I mean, I guess if the matchups all look good I can go with 7 SPs and drop to 5 on a week where I have matchups I hate… But if I decide to go with 6 then, given your advice to start both, who would you advise sitting. I know shallow league questions feel ridiculous to answer, but please indulge me:

I believe writers over at fangraphs, Rob Neyer, and others have all weighed in on the relative value of GB/FB vs. GB%.

Basically, they are saying that what is really important is GB% because that is the most stable stat of GB/LD/FB.

So if you are using GB/FB you are getting not just noise, but harmful noise. LD are the worst kind of batted ball to give up. So why should we think that two pitchers with the same 47% GB rate but one has 25% LD and other 20% LD that the former pitcher is better?

4×4 nl only, 12-team keeper league. My team is in the middle of the pack in all catergories and I am down to 3 healthy OF’s..(only available waiver players are scrap heap)
Dotel is my only closer.. do I punt saves this early to fill OF.. or hold onto OD and trade a Latos or suddenly-hot Volstad?
Thoughts, people?

H2H League – I’m up 4 wins (7-3), down 1 loss (3-2), tied in saves (4-4), 4 walks up (13-17), 25 Ks up (76-51), 0.71 up in ERA (2.88-2.17), 0.06 up in WHIP (1.02-0.96), 0.50 up in Ks/9 (9.68-9.18).

The guy I’m facing has Liriano and Kuroda going today (CLE and PIT, respectively). I’ve got Jered and Verlander (facing each other) and Josh Johnson v. Nats. I’ve got them all benched and I’m just rolling with my closers (Aardsma, K-Rod, Crapps, might bench K-Rod tonight if he can only hurt me). I figure this forces his guys to perform and doesn’t give me the chance of having a couple of blow ups that completely shit on my stats.

Anybody’s thoughts? Keep ’em benched? I’m at my innings for the week, so not like that’s a question.

Yeah — I’m considering Cecil with a 2 start week or Morrow, who has been pretty hot recently. Morrow’s against cleveland and could get 12 Ks in that game given how he’s been pitching in his last few starts. Who do you think I should go with?

Hey there Smokey (and anyone else): I’m in a very deep, 20-team mixed league, so you can imagine that talent is spread pretty thin. I’m short an SP (I have Cole Hamels, Latos, Jared Weaver, and Kazmir … I also have Chapman for when he gets called up, and I picked up Chacin for a spot-start tonight.

@Terrence Mann: the bridge to Soria is horrendous
@Mojo the Helper Monkey: Slowey and Floyd
@Bring Back Pluto: yea start both if thats an option, if only one go with Verlander.
@TheEvilEmpire: I would ride the hot streak of ‘dome.
@Josh: i read that article, Ld outs are the loudest most productive stat working against a pitcher. If you look at there hits per9 innings you may get a better analysis of how the pitcher in question is being effectedby “loud ” [email protected]Wilsonian: i have the same scenario almost have Verlander and josh jonson and i sat Verlander as i am up in era,whip,k’s, i usually dont sit anyone they are supposed to perform especially big names like the ones you mentioned.
@Pacman: Cecil is a guy who if he keeps up not walking many he will find success. 2 great matchup starts great low end option this week.
@mikeE: Stamina is Morrow’s only enemy, and with his diabetes it may never be perfect he will go up and down at least once during the season. 33k in 28 innings is good enough for me to buy into right now.

I’m tied in runs and up by one SB. Do I start Rajai against Marcum who has pitched well but has had bad luck with run support, or Quentin against Hughes who has a chance at shutting down an offense or imploding?

Hey there Smokey (and anyone else): I’m in a very deep, 20-team mixed league, so you can imagine that talent is spread pretty thin. I’m short an SP (I have Cole Hamels, Latos, Jared Weaver, and Kazmir … I also have Chapman for when he gets called up, and I picked up Chacin for a spot-start tonight.

@Smokey: Will Beckett look like shit again today? Is there something about how he’s pitched this season that is fundamentally different or can the fact that today’s date begins with a five make the difference?

@Eric: wow a 12 part question, nice. Keep an on Volstad pitched ok last nite, as did Harrison yesterday afternoon. Bondy at clev is a good stream for the day. I would not waste another roster spot on a speculative guy would give you 2. Pretty slim pickings may want to explore a lower level trade for a sp. maybe a pavano, marcum, feldman type just to give you a semi reliable option.

Thanks, Smokey. Good advice. As you can tell … I’m a little frustrated by the choices. I’ve never played in so deep a league before.

Just a one-part follow-up: when a pitcher faces the same team twice in a week, like Volstad with Washington or Baker tomorrow with Detroit … do you think the second matchup generally favors the batters or the pitcher? Or is it just a case-by-case thing?

@Chris: Garcia and Price, tough calls though, as i like Matusz and Slowey as well. But i took the best 2 start match up and the best 1 start matchup. Hill for util.
@MattW: well he is walking to many. 13 in 28 innings. had 55 all last yr in 212. Fundamentally i dont see anything different. Team is scoring runs for him, he is 8-1 carreer at Camden i see a pretty good game figure 7 innings 7 k’s 3 earned.
@Eric: Depends on home/away factor, but i think it has to favor the hitters for those 2 guys anyways. They dont feature super k rate so they arent fooling many people, and fooling people is what gets it done.

@BabyBeluga: I’d rather keep sizemore in that trade, Correia is a step below Weaver. You would have to put something into that to get zimm for me but you may get frustrated owner sick of him playing peek-a-boo with the lineup.

@herschel: Me either, its tought to sit someone you drafted vs someone u picked off waivers, both really will only give you one good start a piece. Id go with Baker only because Scherzer is going to give up a couple runs as well but if you dont mind the spike in era.

Yo Smokey, I noticed that Masterson’s FIP is way over a run under his ERA, and I own Lilly. My team might struggle with WHIP, but I don’t know that Lilly would be able to right that ship anyway. Should I drop Lilly for Masterson?

@Suck My Wieters: i would want your side
@Greg: i dont really see in upgrade there for ya i would ride out the storm with yuni and ian but johnson on the bench as a fill in isnt horrendous option either if you have the space.

I just posted on our league page…I’m in one of the razzball leagues and my team has the second best batting average, so far this year. Only, today, my team is one for twenty nine, with Bay as my last remaining player.

Chacin throwing smoke today.. I have a chance to pick him up in my nl-only league. i havent been able to trade away any of starting pitchers and dont know if i should drop one: randy wells, leake, ian kennedy, and tom gorzelanny. what’s the move here?

last year i would have denied this trade right away and even a month ago as well, but luddy hitting in that 2 hole is proving to pay dividends for his stats and i think he could end up with more hr’s and runs than youk, am i nuts? i like the idea of bringing in bailey as well, my league counts k’s, k/bb, and k/9 as well so the argument that his saves will be few and far between can be met that he contributes elsewhere…

yea, i know full well i’m selling him short but making the deal gives me 3 solid closers and adds ludwick to my outfield of mccutchen, bruce, quentin, and krispie young…

a little background on my league, all friends from college and they know full well i have only 2 real closers while everyone else is stockpiled, they ask a king’s ransom for someone like kevin gregg or matt lindstrom, this might be my best shot to get a good one and getting ludwick back i feel is good for me…

I have a situation. I am being offered a totally lopsided trade in my favor. I think the other guy is trying to stick it to the guy who is in 1st place by helping my team. I am currently in 4th. I am being offered top sirloin for my 99 cent burger. Suggestions?

@Corey: Chacin isnt goin to win or lose you a championship, if he does than your team has bigger needs. Chacin is hot on everyones mind with todays start. Webb is the biggest if in the trade, will Webb get back to give you 30 hr and 100rbi putout, because thats what Dunn is going to give you.

@Smokey: Thought I posted this earlier, but it must have never made it through…Strange, but anyways.

In a dynasty league, what do you think about Ichiro and Rauch for EY2 and Borbon? I’m trying to add youth to my team, and I am very weak on SBs. Borbon would go in the outfield, and EY2 would go to my IF slot.